The Red Coats are Coming

Hopefully, I am not the only "history person" to get that title, but it was so fitting for this event! Seven girls, ages 7 and under, all in red coats going on the Santa Train in North Bend. We were definitely turning some heads! And they were so adorable... you can only imagine how many pictures I took. Thanks to Christa for the idea to do this, and to Nana for buying the girls coats and hats. It was a fun family event and the kids loved it! I narrowed it down to a few of my favorite pics... but it was near impossible to get one of all seven girls looking and smiling at once!

He puts fear in the hearts of children...

Well, at least in the heart of one child, specifically Addison Kate. She's fine with sitting on Santa's lap, or waving to and chatting with strangers, but show her a cute Penguin on Snowflake Lane and she is gripped with terror and cries hysterically. Here is the culprit...

Don't let him fool you, Addison knows the truth about him. She must, since this was her reaction...

And everytime he walked back past us, she would look something like this...

Even the sucker gripped in her hand didn't take her mind off that scary penguin.

Although Addison wasn't a huge fan of Bellevue's Snowflake Lane, the rest of us were! Amy Jo joined the girls and I to go check it out, and although it is always an adventure with three young children, a long drive on a rainy evening, and the craziness of malls at Christmas time, we had fun regardless. Amy Jo is always up to these adventures with me, while Derek usually thinks I am crazy. That is why we pack the activities in when he is out of town:)

Oh, we also hit Bellevue Botanical Gardens right before this, but it was POURING down rain and it was a very quick trip. The lights seem a little less enchanting when the kids are freezing and wet, and we are trying to push a stroller while holding umbrellas. But of course, we still snapped a few pictures!

Thank you Kent Station Santa

We will never return to the mall Santa after the BEST experience this year at Kent Station. I have friends who have gone to Kent Station in years past and told me it was great, but I just finally got around to going there this year. There was no line on a Monday, and we got to go into a cozy little house with Santa and Mrs. Claus. They were the FRIENDLIEST people I have ever seen at a Santa photo shop, and we spent 15-20 minutes with them. Each girl sat individually with Santa, and I think the addition of Mrs. Claus makes everything so much less frightening for little kids! They each got a candy cane for themselves and a candy cane to share with someone else or put on your tree - you can see Addison showing off her double candy canes. She kept saying, "Like it! Like it!" over and over while she got to experience her first candy cane. And at the end, he gives you the "Naughty or nice" test, where he touches your nose and squeaks a toy, meaning you were nice. What a nice Christmas memory compared to last year when the 16 year old working at the mall didn't know how to sit 3 kids with Santa, so they squished them all on Santa's lap while Santa said gruffly, "Hurry up, she's heavy!", after waiting an hour in line. Lesson learned!

Rockin' around the Christmas Tree

Ten on Ten: December

Addison Kate

Since I seem to keep getting pictures of Addison that I LOVE, it reminded me that it is time for an update of what is going on with her. Since I LONG gave up keeping records in their baby books, like I did early on, I am relying on these blog posts to remind me one day! So, here is Addison at the age of 23 months (almost):

* Talks nonstop and repeats everything we say. She has the cutest little voice and I love how she says, "I no Know" or "Min-it?" (Which is for "in a minute", which it seems like I am always telling her). She is putting words together like, "Daddy work?" or "We home!" She can also be like a broken record, saying something over and over until I want to pull my hair out.

*She has never watched any tv, until the last couple of weeks when she discovered the show Yo Gabba Gabba. This show is SO annoying, and of course she would choose it to be obsessed with. She asks for "Gabba Gabba" all the time now, and watches 15-25 minutes or so without getting distracted. I can't help but be thankful, just a little bit!

*She seems to be very ready for potty training, as she tells me every time she goes potty and insists on being changed immediately. She loves to sit on the potty, and has gone a couple of times on it. I am just waiting until after the holidays to begin the torture.

*She is still very attached to her binky and blanky, although we try to keep it mostly in her bed. I keep planning on breaking her of the binky, and keep putting it off. My plan is to do it after Christmas.

*Addison only stopped taking a morning nap about a month ago, and it was hard to break her of it even then! She was taking two good naps every day and still going to bed by 8 and sleeping until 7:30 or so. Due to our schedule, I finally broke the morning nap, and now she goes down around noon each day for a couple of hours. She doesn't mind going to sleep, because she gets to cuddle her blanky and binky.

*She is very social and never has a problem when I leave her with anyone. She loves to see our friends, and gets especially obsessed over Caden Boyd and Heidi Bell, whose names she repeats happily over and over. Usually followed by "hug", which is what she wants to do to them.

*She eats like a horse, as all the Edwards girls do. If she doesn't like something, she says, "No thank you" and takes my hand to spit it into. I'm trying to teach her an alternative to this!

*Daddy loves to play "kisses" with her, where he asks her for kisses, she says no, then he says "pleeeaaase", and she says no, then he says "ok, no kisses" and she immediately wants kisses. They do this with lots of giggling, over and over.

*She loves us to sing her songs in the car - her favorites are "happy and know it", "Bible" (either Jesus loves me or B-I-B-L-E), "Up above" (Twinkle Twinkle little star), or lately "in-a-bewoh" (a crazy way of saying Jingle Bells).

*Loves her sisters and hates when the door is closed to their room, which means they are doing something that she can't join them in. She cries "dough, dough!" over and over until I can distract her. Sometimes they need a little break from her:)

*The drama is coming out of her, as it has inevitably with each of our girls. She will put her head down and talk in a very sad little voice sometimes, which is so cute I can hardly stand it.

*When we are out, people will often tell her or me that she is cute. She has learned this quickly, and now says it about herself! Someone will wave at her or talk to her while we are shopping and she will hold her dress, or shirt and say, "coot!". I'm glad that half the time they don't know what she is talking about, but this does not bode well for the future. She also says it after I get her dressed (which is probably... well definitely my fault, because it is so fun to dress girls and put cute things on them). We'll work on humility later:)

Addison keeps us busy, and we have one foot in the big kid world and one foot in the baby world with our girls right now. I get sad when I think of leaving the baby world behind completely, but I am learning to enjoy the big kid world. It all flies by so quickly, I'm just savoring every minute! What a blessing kids are.

My Christmas tree partner

What is usually a family event, turned into just me and Addison this year. For the past couple of years we have gone to a friend's Christmas tree farm (on their property) and party to get our tree. The party this year happened to be when Derek was out of town, so I decided to just go with the girls. However, as soon as we got there, the big girls were more interested in going and playing with their friends and this is all I saw of them.

So Addison and I went on the hunt, along with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a pretty quick process.

And here we are with our little tree, and Grandpa the tree cutter.

We are a little late in the game this year, but we plan on putting the tree up on Tuesday. At least that will be a family affair!